Act 5- Hammy's Realisation ;) Flashcards
“That skull had a tongue in it that could sing once” (p 425)
Realisation of life and death, afterlife and God
Death removes identity
Contrast between “skull” and “tongue”- between life and death
“Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander” (p. 423)
“Alexander the Great” - realised that even great men end up dead- in the end everyone dies, no matter who they are- we all end up the same
“Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returned to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam” ( 424)
Cyclic pattern
Allusion to Church of England’s burial service- “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
Cycle of life and death is inevitable
“Yet have I in me something dangerous/ which let thy wisdom fear” (429)
Realised he has a fight in him- he will avenge his father
“In my heart there was a kind of fighting/ that would not let me sleep” (433)
Personified- desire to do something- to act
Realised he has it in him- potentially not mad
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends” (434)
He cannot control it, it’s out of his and human control
Attributes a chance circumstance to divine purpose
Realised that God is greater- fate controlled
Link to “there is a special providence…”
Divine justice/ plan
Life and death are dictated by higher powers of God
“There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow” (448)
Alludes to the Christian belief in God’s direct intervention in worldly affairs
Realised that he doesn’t have all power- God is greater and perhaps it’s better to leave it up to God
“The readiness is all, since no man ought he leaves knows what isn’t to leave betimes” (448)
Ready to let fate take its course
Giving into a higher power- accepts he cannot do anything
Idea that people don’t know the afterlife so it doesn’t if they die early
Will happen to everyone- death is inevitable BUT “readiness” = acceptance
“His madness is poor Hamlets enemy” (449)
Talks in third person- perhaps suggesting he is now a different person
Using his supposed madness as an excuse for his behaviour
But accepts his “antic disposition” was perhaps a mistake
Accepts that his actions could perhaps be a bad judgment?
“At his fall sergeant Death is strict in his arrest” (458)
Death as Gods sergeant
Again God is in control of everything
Implication he must appear in court- knows he has sinned by trying to avenge his father by attempting to kill Claudius
“Strict”- no one gets away from it
R+G’s death attributed to getting in the way of…
“Two mighty opposites” (Hamlet/ Claudius)
Life and inevitable conflict
“It is I, Hamlet the Dane”
Realised his responsibility
Iambic pentameter- stresses “Dane”- as his fate- Danish ruler
Seems to acknowledge it’s his fate
“The rest is silence”
He has he most soliloquies- always thinking
But ends in “silence”- a fitting end
- nothingness?
- fulfilment of desire- a relief?
- escape from life?
Poison- cynical death= poisoned by state/ power
“Objective correlative”
- self administered poison from inside- internal
“Let a beats be lord of beasts”
-realises corruption- nature of power
“But let it be” - “Horatio I am dead”
- link to the “to be or not to be” soliloquy
Link to tragic theory- MIDDLE AGES
Tragedy not possible in Christian society- those that sought power deluded
Hamlet accepting the Christian idea that God is in charge
He tried to seek power in desiring to get revenge on Claudius- sinning- but accepts that “his madness is poor Hamlets enemy”
